Shopping for your wedding dress is an experience quite unlike any other. And so we think it helps to know what that incredibly special journey will look like, plus what you can expect from our multi-award-winning bridal boutique.
Since setting up The Little Pearl in the historic market town of Pickering, North Yorkshire, in 2015, we’ve helped hundreds of brides find their dream dress and have felt honoured to play such an amazing part in their wedding day.
Ever upping our game as we go, we’ve continued to hone our offering, listening precisely to what you brides-to-be want and then fulfilling your wishes whilst cheerleading you all the way to the aisle.
So, for those of you who’ve recently set out on the dream dress search with us - and those who are considering doing so *waves* - we wanted to walk you through the wonderful end-to-end bridal experience we deliver and reveal what it is that brides love most about The Little Pearl.
Your Experience at our North Yorkshire Bridal Boutique
Luxury Bridal Experience
The first step towards finding your wedding dress is a Luxury Bridal Experience appointment at our North Yorkshire boutique. This is one-and-a-half hours of bridalwear bliss as you meet your own personal stylist (either myself, Diana, Vicky or Rose) and get all the expert help and advice you need on choosing your gown.
As with all luxury designer boutiques, we do charge a consultation fee of £20 for our bridal experiences. This gives you exclusive use of the boutique, one-to-one personalised styling, treats during your appointment and a special goodie bag to take home with you. The fee is redeemable against any dress order you make with us on the day.
The experience will start with a warm and friendly welcome for you and your guests, then we’ll bring out the refreshments and chat all things wedding and bridal style before letting you loose on the rails. With your favourite dresses selected, and perhaps some suggestions from us too, it’s time to try on!
Expect fun, butterflies and possibly even (happy) tears as you narrow down the options to find the one that sends your heart into a spin. Knowing how special this part of the journey is, we’ve introduced an upgraded option of an Extra Luxe Bridal Experience appointment, which also includes our in-house photographer to document these precious moments with you and your girl gang!
Ready to start your dress-shopping journey at The Little Pearl? Then simply head to our appointment page to book either an Extra Luxe or Luxury Bridal Experience.
Follow-Up Consultation
While a lot of brides do find their dream dress with us at their very first appointment, we totally understand that some of you might want to return for a second consultation to be sure of your decision. It might also be that you want to bring along a friend or relative whose opinion you value but that wasn’t able to make your first appointment.
This will be a full hour with your own personal stylist. Again, there is a booking fee of £15 to allow for full privacy, attentive one-to-one service and a whole lot of loveliness for you and your guests.
During this time, you’ll be able to try back on your favourite gowns and have expert help in whittling down designs to ensure the final one gives you all the feels and ticks all the boxes.
Wedding Dress Order
Once you’ve found that special dress that you can totally see yourself saying “I do” in, we pop the fizz, celebrate and savour that amazing moment. Then, once your feet come back down to earth, we’ll take your measurements, decide which size we’re going to order and determine if there are any specific custom tweaks that need making to the dress.
At this point, we’ll also require a 50% part payment to place your order, with the final balance due when your dress is ready to be sent to us from the designer, usually 12 weeks ahead of your big day!
Meanwhile, if you've picked one of our beautiful off-the-peg dresses, we will send your gown off for dry cleaning and store then her safely at the boutique until closer to your wedding day.
Bridal Accessory Styling Appointment
Your finishing touches will help bring your full bridal vision to life and provide the opportunity to personalise your look.
Whether you’ve bought your dress from The Little Pearl or not, you can book an Accessory Styling Appointment with us to help you find those perfect pieces. During this hour-long appointment, you’ll be guided through our gorgeous collections of bridal accessories and expertly styled in line with your desired look.
Expect to have lots of fun trying on dreamy veils, jewellery and bridal hair accessories from amazing designers, including Arianna Tiaras, Linzi Jay and The Couture Veil.
Take a look at our Guide To Choosing Bridal Accessories blog post for top tips, design picks and trends.
Dress Collection & Fitting Appointments
Once your dress is on its way to us, we’ll book you in for your ‘first look’ appointment here at the boutique (cue more smiles and tears!) and will help you arrange your fittings.
These will usually start around two months before the wedding and will include the likes of altering hems and seams, adding bust support and skirt bustles, plus any custom alterations. Here at The Little Pearl, we recommend a number of seamstresses external to the boutique who are experts in their fields to take care of our lovely #pearlsgirls. Generally speaking, you’ll need two to three appointments to achieve the perfect fit, so you’ll look an absolute knockout and feel fully comfortable and confident in that dream gown of yours!
Be sure to take a look at our Bridal Attire Timeline blog post too, which explains the wedding dress shopping process and timings in more detail.
What Brides Love About The Little Pearl
Award-Winning Customer Service
Making each bride’s experience with us special is of optimum importance, hence why we always bring our customer service A-game to every appointment…and why we’ve got four shiny awards on our boutique shelves!
Most recently, we won Customer Service of the Year 2022 at the Bridal Buyer Awards, AKA the Oscars of the wedding industry! Further accolades include being named Yorkshire and North East Bridal Retailer of the Year in 2022 and 2018 and winning The Wedding Guide's Best Bridal Boutique for Customer Service in Yorkshire.
The very best bit about being bestowed these incredible titles? They’re voted for by our fabulous brides based on the experience they’ve had with us…and you can’t get much better recognition than that! Here are just a few of their lovely comments:
“Absolutely amazing customer service! Felt so at ease, nothing was too much trouble, and I didn't feel pressured in the slightest.” Becky
“Vicky was so knowledgeable and could make suggestions of what would work for my body and wedding plans, but would also listen to our thoughts and be led by what we wanted too. There was no limit on what I could try on, how many times etc. and I didn’t feel rushed at all. I walked in, and Vicky knew about me, about my wedding, and it just made the whole experience so personal and special.” Abigail
“They are the dream team, so friendly, relaxed, fun and super knowledgeable about all things wedding dresses and accessories.” Lucy
“I had the most amazing time picking my wedding dress at the weekend! I had gone in expecting not to purchase anything and just have a look around as I was very nervous about trying on dresses. Vicky was incredible and made me feel so welcome and comfortable! She must have a sixth sense as I said yes to the very first dress I tried on!” Rachel
Female Empowerment
A big part of our #pearlsgirls ethos is female empowerment, so we aim to uplift and inspire all brides who walk through our door. We’re all about shopping for a dress shape rather than size, taking time to find a design that aligns with both your bridal vision and your figure. Above all else, we listen to any niggles and help calm any nerves by finding a dress that makes you feel like, well, you! So you can take to that aisle feeling comfortable and confident!
Personal Styling
Our wonderful Bridal Experiences are led by one of the team - either myself, Vicki or Rose - who will listen carefully to your styling preferences, likes/dislikes, and your wedding plans to help narrow down the options. Our knowledge of our collections means we can suggest a ‘wildcard’ that might just turn out to be ‘the one’ and also discuss custom alterations to ensure your gown ticks every box.
Carefully Curated Wedding Dress Collections
We take great care when picking the collections for our North Yorkshire bridal boutique to ensure that each brings something special to our rails but that they sit collectively in line with our quality, ethos and experience. You can check out the amazing designers we currently stock here, with dress prices ranging from £1,000 up to £3,500, encompassing sizes from a UK 2 to UK 30, across an array of styles, shapes and gorgeous fabrics. We also have a super exciting new addition coming to our designer lineup soon, so watch this space!
BECOME A #PEARLSGIRL - Simply click here to book your Bridal Experience at our gorgeous North Yorkshire bridal boutique, The Little Pearl.
GET YOUR FREE DRESS SHOPPING GUIDE - Join our #PearlsGirls Club to get your hands on our downloadable ‘Guide To Start Your Wedding Dress Shopping’ and to be the first to hear about exciting boutique news, exclusive offers and upcoming events. Click here to sign up!